Overview of Eligibility Requirements for International Graduates

The information in this section applies to you if you have completed a teacher education
program outside of Canada. If you have not completed a teacher education program,
you may be interested in reviewing the eligibility requirements for an Independent School Teacher Certificate. This
certificate enables you to teach in a specific area(s) in the BC kindergarten to
grade 12 independent school system.

Did you previously hold a non-expiring British Columbia Certificate of Qualification (Standard, Professional or First Nations Language Teacher Certificate)?

If you previously held a non-expiring British Columbia Certificate of Qualification (Standard, Professional or First Nations Language Teacher Certificate) that was cancelled for non-payment of fees or that you relinquished, you may qualify for a reinstatement of your certificate of qualification. Find out more on the Previously Certified Teachers page.

Teaching in BC

To teach in BC's kindergarten to grade 12 public education sector, you must
apply to the Teacher Regulation Branch for a Ministry of Education teaching certificate.
We will evaluate your application to see if you qualify for certification in BC.
We will assess your:

academic record, including teacher education training and subject area studies

teaching experience, and

fitness to teach (that is, whether your moral character makes you suitable to work
with children).

Please note that academic studies alone are not enough to qualify you for a BC teaching
certificate that enables you to teach in the public school system. You must also
have completed a teacher training program that qualifies you to teach in the kindergarten
to grade 12 public school system in the jurisdiction where you completed the program.

If you have not completed a teacher training program, you will need to do so before
applying to us for a certificate. Please see
Teacher Education for a list of BC universities that offer approved programs
leading to certification.

The following are some basic requirements for certification through the BC Ministry
of Education Teacher Regulation Branch:

BC grade 12 diploma or its equivalent

You must have completed the equivalent of a BC grade 12 diploma. We consider the
following to be equivalent to a BC grade 12 diploma:

Ontario: Grade 13

Quebec: A DEC after two years of CEGEP is considered equivalent to a BC grade 12
diploma and one year of post-secondary education.

British education system: Completion of "O" levels and at least two "A"
levels. "A" level coursework with a grade of A or B is considered equivalent
to six credits of first-year university level coursework.

If you have not completed 12 years of elementary and secondary schooling, we may
use your years of post-secondary study to meet the grade 12 requirement. For example,
if you have a grade 10 education and a four-year undergraduate degree, we may consider
this equivalent to a BC grade 12 diploma and two years of post-secondary study.

Post-secondary studies

You must have completed four years (120 credits) of post-secondary studies and a
degree or its equivalent. Within these studies, we will look for coursework that
meets our academic requirements and teacher education requirements.

Academic studies
All public school teachers in BC, regardless of subject area or level, are required
to have completed 6 credits of coursework in English literature and composition.
If you completed all of your post-secondary studies in French, you must have completed
6 credits of coursework in French literature and composition.

Secondary school teachers must have completed at least 24 credits of coursework
in one of the following acceptable subject areas:

Art
Biology
Business Education
Chemistry
Computer Science
Dance
Drama
Earth Science
English
First Nations Studies
French
General Science
Geography
German
History

Trades teachers can qualify for a restricted Trades Certificate if they hold
a trades qualification issued or recognized by the BC Industry Training Authority
in a trade that has a minimum of three levels of technical training and a minimum
of 5 years of journeyperson work and/or trades teaching experience. Trades teachers
must also meet the English coursework requirement and teacher education coursework
requirements below.

Teacher education studies
You must have completed a teacher education program consisting of at least 48 credits
of education courses and classroom teaching experience. This is equivalent to approximately
1.5 to 2 years of full-time study. This could include a degree or diploma in education,
or teacher training courses that you completed within an academic degree.

The program must include studies in the areas of:

human development and learning

educational foundations (history, philosophy, sociology)

curriculum and instruction

diagnosing and providing for students with special needs and

evaluation and testing.

The teacher education program must qualify you to teach in the elementary and/or
secondary public school system in the jurisdiction where you completed your program.
Whenever possible, you must also have registered with the education authority in
the jurisdiction where you completed your program, even if you have never taught
in that jurisdiction.

Teacher education programs are often very different from one jurisdiction to another.
Graduates of the following types of programs will not qualify for certification
in BC:

programs that are less than 30 credits

programs completed entirely by distance education

programs that do not qualify their graduates to teach in the public school system

programs that are not awarded university credit

programs that include teaching experience only.

Once we have completed our evaluation, we will send you a letter describing the
courses or program you need to complete before you qualify for a certificate. You
can appeal our decision if you believe there are additional factors that we should
consider that were not described or included in your initial application.

You may still qualify for a teaching certificate, even if you have not completed
all of these requirements. In some cases, we will grant you a temporary teaching
certificate. You can upgrade the temporary certificate to a permanent certificate
by finishing the remaining coursework while you teach. We will send you a letter
describing the courses you need to complete once we have finished evaluating your
application.

Recent teaching experience

You must have taught within the last 10 years. We require a minimum of either 75
days of teaching experience in one academic year or 100 days of teaching experience
over two consecutive academic years.

If you do not have paid teaching experience, you must have completed a minimum of
10 weeks of student teaching experience within your teacher education program, and
you must have completed this program within the last 10 years.

If you do not meet the minimum teaching experience requirements, we will ask you
to complete some teacher education courses related to your subject area(s) and a
practicum before we will grant you a certificate. If you have not had acceptable
teaching experience within the last 20 years, we will ask you to complete an acceptable
teacher education program.

Proficiency in English or French

To teach in BC, you need to be proficient in English. You must be able to read,
write and speak English at an advanced level. If you teach in French or are planning
to teach with the French education authority of BC (le Conseil scolaire francophone
de la Colombie-Britannique), you need to be proficient in French.

If you have completed any part of your education in a country where the only official
language is not English or French, you will need to submit results from an acceptable
language proficiency test before we issue you a certificate. See
Language Proficiency for more information.

Familiarity with the Canadian education system

If you have studied and/or taught in an education system that is significantly different
from the education system in Canada, we may ask you to complete a familiarization
program to learn about the culture and curriculum of the Canadian education system
before we grant you a certificate. The familiarization program adds to the knowledge
and experience you already have and prepares you for a successful career in education
in BC.

As part of the familiarization program, you will need to complete 12 credits of
teacher education courses related to your subject area(s) and a practicum through
a BC university. Regardless of the university you choose to attend, familiarization
programs usually take approximately one year to complete. Many applicants who are
asked to complete a familiarization program choose to complete Simon Fraser University's
Professional Qualification Program or the University of British Columbia's Teacher
Updating Program.

We will tell you in our evaluation letter if you must complete a familiarization
program. You will need this letter to enroll in a university's courses or education
program.

Fitness to teach

You must be a person of a "good and moral character and fit and proper to teach." We evaluate your suitability (or what we call "fitness") to teach based on some of the documents that you are required to fill out and/or submit as part of your application. These include:

application form (personal information questions)

confidential character references

assessment forms and teacher evaluation reports

criminal record check results from the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, which include, in some cases, the results of a fingerprint search through regional and/or national police records

your academic records

statements of standing (if you are certified in another jurisdiction)

What if you cannot submit required documents?

You may find it impossible to obtain some of the documents or alternate forms of
the documents that are required to qualify for a BC teaching certificate, despite
your efforts and any assistance that we may be able to provide.

If this is the case, we may still be able to assess your application based on additional
information that you provide. This includes the reason(s) for why you are unable
to obtain the necessary application documents or alternate forms of the required
documents. Your reasons may include circumstances that are outside your control,
such as:

An institution (such as a school or governmental organization) is unable to provide
the required document(s) because it no longer exists, is not operational or has
lost records due to war, upheaval, natural disaster or other crisis;

An institution refuses to provide the required document(s); or

You fear that you will be discriminated against or persecuted if you contact an
institution to request the document(s).

We will collect from you any information and/or materials about your particular
circumstances and present them to the Director of Certification. The Director of
Certification will also determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether additional testing
or assessment is required once the application has been reviewed. The Director of
Certification will then decide whether a teaching certificate can be issued based
on the submitted documentation and, if applicable, the results from the test or
assessment.

Videos about the Certificate Application Process

The videos have been
prepared to help guide you through the application process.